DESCRIPTION (adapted from the application) This application requests partial funding for a FASEB Summer Research Conference on Renal Hemodynamics: Integration of Endothelial, Epithelial and Vascular Control Mechanisms to be held on June 27-July 2, 1998 at Vermont Academy, Saxton's River, VT under the auspices of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). The conference will assemble investigators from multiple disciplines who use diverse approaches (cell and molecular to integrative whole animal) to understand the regulation of the renal circulation. The format consists of nine major sessions, five morning an four evening sessions, with daily pre-dinner poster discussion sessions. There will be approximately 75 invited speakers who, after brief overview by the session chairs, will address current unresolved issues and recent ongoing research directed at their resolution. Each speaker has been asked to present their most recent unpublished work and to focus on identifying the major unanswered questions in the field and the experimental approaches to answering these questions. Each presentation is followed by discussion and there is a large amount of time available in the afternoons for informal discussions amon the participants. Previous conferences in 1989, 1992 and 1995 were very successful and conducive to the exchange of ideas among the participants. Give the rapid developments in this important area, we expect that the 1998 conference will foster further exchange and interaction among investigators working at different levels within this complex integrated system. To stimulat future investigative interests in the area, attempts have been made to identif young investigators from active, contributing laboratories as speakers (including fellows and trainees) with special attention given to minorities an women. The topics that will be covered are: 1) the molecular and cellular physiology of the glomerulus and vascular smooth muscle (growth and remodeling of the vascular wall, extracellular matrix regulation, growth factors, signal transduction pathways, ion channels, cell stretch and shear), 2) endothelial/autacoid control of tubular and vascular function (shear stress an gene expression, the vascular cytoskeleton, and the role of the endothelium in normal control of tubular and vascular function as well as in renal disease), 3) interactions of neurohumoral and autacoid mechanisms and control of tubular and vascular function (thromboxane, arachidonic acid products, receptor gene expression, and ontogeny of control mechanisms), 4) tubular and vascular interactions in control of glomerular filtration (tubuloglomerular feedback an functional characteristics of macula densa cells), 5) tubular and vascular functions of the renin-angiotensin system (molecular biology of angiotensin receptors, renin synthesis and secretion, angiotensin signaling pathways, role in nephrogenesis and vascular development, and interactions with other autacoids/hormones, 6) the renal medullary circulation and pressure natriuresis, 7) physiology and pathophysiology of the renal circulation (including molecular and genetic approaches to renal vascular development and disease.